Donald Trump’s administration has resumed a policy of deporting immigrant detainees to so-called third countries, starting with the tiny African nation of Eswatini.
But Tuesday’s removals of five detained immigrants from the United States to the tiny African nation of Eswatini surprised diplomats who only heard about the removal from social media, The Independent has learned
Government officials there say they intend to send those detainees back to their countries of origin — which the Trump administration says can’t happen.
Eswatini’s government is now working with the United Nations to send the men — who originally hail from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen — back to their home countries, despite the Department of Homeland Security labelling them “depraved monsters” who are “so uniquely barbaric” that those countries won’t accept them.
The men allegedly have criminal convictions on murder, sexual assault and robbery charges, among others, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Two men received 20-year prison sentences, and another received a prison sentence of 25 years, according to the agency.
But the Eswatini government says the men “will be repatriated to their respective countries” and that the United Nations International Organization for Migration is working with Eswatini to “facilitate the transit of these inmates to their countries of origin.”
It remains unclear whether those men will remain incarcerated in Eswatini despite their lengthy prison sentences, or if they will walk free once they are no longer in the government’s custody or the custody of their home countries.
Eswatini’s acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said the men have been sent to correctional facilities within isolated units “where similar offenders are kept.”
“As a responsible member of the global community, the Kingdom of Eswatini adheres to international agreements and diplomatic protocols regarding the repatriation of individuals, ensuring that due process and respect for human rights is followed,” Mdluli said.
A representative from the Embassy of Eswatini in Washington, D.C., told The Independent that officials at the embassy had only learned about the removal flight from social media posts.
The State Department and Homeland Security did not contact the embassy about the removal, a representative said.
“We didn’t even know we were on the list” for third-country removals, she added.
The embassy has requested information about the deportees from Eswatini’s government.
Homeland Security’s social media posts included mug shots of the men and what officials said are their criminal records and sentences. The men were not named.
The Independent has requested additional comment from Homeland Security, the State Department and the U.S. embassy in Eswatini.
Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a land-locked nation of roughly 1.2 million people, bordered by South Africa on virtually all sides and by the southern tip of Mozambique to the east. Its government is the last absolute monarchy on the continent; King Mswati III has ruled over the nation for nearly 40 years, and political parties are prohibited from running in elections for Eswatini’s House of Assembly and Senate.
Dozens were killed in pro-democracy uprisings in 2021, and political dissent in the country has been crushed, according to advocacy groups.
The government has failed to investigate extrajudicial killings, journalists and dissidents face threats of arbitrary arrests and detentions, and detainees there were “subjected to torture and other ill-treatment,” according to Amnesty International.
The State Department tells travelers to “exercise increased caution in Eswatini due to crime and civil unrest.”
The Eswatini removal flight appears to be the first third-country deportation after Immigration and Customs Enforcement told officials that immigrants can be deported from the United States to countries other than their own with as little as six hours’ notice — or no notice at all.
The memo from ICE acting director Todd Lyons follows a recent Supreme Court decision that opens the door for officials to send deportees to countries where they do not have citizenship, family or any other connections.
Immigrants sent to countries where foreign officials have not provided the United States with “diplomatic assurances” that they won’t face torture or human rights abuses must be provided 24 hours’ notice, the memo says. Or, in “exigent” circumstances, only six hours’ notice.
Countries that do provide those “assurances” could be deported without any advance notice, according to the memo. If the State Department believes those assurances are “credible,” then ICE may deport someone to that country “without the need for further procedures.”
In March, lawyers for a group of immigrants filed a lawsuit arguing that the government violated federal law by failing to let them challenge their removal to countries where they could be harmed or killed. Massachusetts District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the government to give those men “meaningful” notice and opportunity to challenge their deportation orders.
But on June 23, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority blocked the judge’s decision, giving the administration the greenlight to send those men to war-torn South Sudan.
South Sudan’s government said the men, all of whom were convicted of crimes in the United States, were “under the care of the relevant authorities” but did not disclose their whereabouts, condition or what will happen to them.
None of their family members have heard from them since they arrived there, according to attorneys.
The administration is reportedly negotiating similar deportation plans with several other countries.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has held hundreds of immigrants at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and deported dozens of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a brutal maximum-security prison in El Salvador, marking the administration’s first such arrangement of third-country removals.
Court documents revealed El Salvador’s government told the United Nations that deportees held inside that country are the responsibility of the U.S. government — contradicting statements from Trump administration officials. A group hired by the U.N. has also accused the administration of state-sponsored “enforced disappearances.”
